


Too Quiet To Speak

by theberries



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Mute!John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 19:10:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theberries/pseuds/theberries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave has a lil bby crush on a cute nerd in his English class.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Quiet To Speak

Your name is Dave Strider and you can't figure this kid out. He sits in the front of your English class and takes notes like nobody's business. You see him sometimes surrounded by people you assume are his friends, but he never talks to any of them. They talk to him occasionally, but he just nods or shakes his head as an answer or just starts writing in his notebook. You think it's kinda weird, but you've never tried to speak to him. 

You might have a crush on him? 

But, please, you're Dave Strider, and Dave Strider doesn't get crushes randomly on blue-eyed cuties in English class that he's never met before. You're a Strider, you don't even get crushes. 

Okay, that's a lie, you've had crushes before, but you were always up front about your feelings. Terezi Pyrope in third grade (she shoved a pencil up your nose when you told her), Jade Harley in sixth grade (she laughed until she realised you weren't actually joking), Karkat Vantas in eighth grade (he turned bright red before shoving a cupcake down your shirt), the list goes on. 

This boy, though, this one boy. You walk up to talk to him, but turn around as soon as you get close. You don't know why he makes you feel like this, but he sure does a good job of making you feel shy. 

You don't even know his name. 

Yet. 

One day you'll work up the courage to talk to him. One day. 

For now, you're content with staring at him in English class and babbling to Rose about how cute he looks when the teacher talks too fast and he has to turn around to ask his friend behind him to explain it again. He doesn't even have to tell his friend, either, he just turns and the boy that looks almost like his brother, but with green eyes and shorts that just can't be up to dress code, just tells him what was said. 

It's October, approaching November, and you still haven't tried to talk to him. 

You're a weenie. 

You throw your binder on your bed in frustration the second you get home. English is your last class. You, unlike Rose, get home directly after school ends, and don't dawdle in groups and clubs. You have to go back to school to get her at six every night. It got annoying really quickly. 

Your pillow smells like cheap shampoo and Doritos, but you shove your face into it regardless. You let out a loud groan and shove your knees on to your bed. Your butt is sticking straight up in the air and you feel slightly silly with your arms laying limply on either side of you. Roxy pokes her head in to ask you about afterschool snacks, but you just mumble variously into your pillow until she leaves you be. 

Bro comes in about ten minutes later, walks up to you, slaps your raised ass as hard as he can, and walks out quietly while you screech about how not cool that was. You right yourself and grumble about how much of an ass Bro is before sighing and pulling out your meager homework. 

You stare at your homework for a solid five minutes before slowly pushing it back into your binder. You stand and pop your back before moving to your computer. Homework can wait, the sweet call of the internet is just too tempting. 

==>

When you pull to a stop in front of your school at five after six exactly, Rose is waiting for you. She hops into the family truck quickly with a fair amount of grace before directing you to drive. The first few minutes are spent in silence until you pull up to a light and Rose opens her mouth. 

"He's mute," she says, staring out the window. 

You pause, not knowing who she's talking about, "What?" 

"The boy you have a middle school crush on, he's mute," Rose says with all the nonchalance possibly allowed. You had opened your mouth to snap at her for calling your crush "middle school," but find yourself at a lack of words. That explains a lot, but you're still slightly confused. Rose nudges you with her elbow lightly and gestures to the green light. You quickly turn your head back to the road and thank whatever god is out there that you were the only person at the intersection. 

"How do you know?" you manage to ask after a few minutes of silence. 

"He joined the writing club today. He's very gifted," Rose hums. 

You swallow hard. Silence fills the vehicle as you drive. Rose stares out the window as you fight for words. You glance over at her occasionally, nervously. "If I ask you what happened at the meeting, how badly will you judge me?" 

Rose's musical laugh drifts out of her as your face lights up red. "I wouldn't judge you at all, Dave. Tell me, do you want to know what transpired with your crush present?" You nod sharply once, face still as red as your ink pens. "Well, the meeting started normally, until he came in ten minutes after the start. Karkat griped about him interrupting him, as he had entered the room in the middle of Karkat's reading of one of his pieces. He made a couple of panicked gestures I can only assume is sign language, before Karkat gestured back to him, yelling his words as he moved his hands." You already knew Karkat knows sign language. He tried to teach you when you two were closer friends, but you could never pick it up. 

"I was granted the pleasure of reading a loud a work of his he had brought. It was very good. It was a poem about drowning in one's own mind, unable to speak one's dreams and desires. Makes sense, I suppose, with his muteness," Rose glances over at you as she finishes speaking. 

"So," you say after a beat of silence, "he's mute, but not deaf?" 

Rose nods smoothly. "He said it was born mute." Your wonder of what caused it rests in the back of your mind; there, but not immediete. 

"What's his name?" you mumur. 

"John Egbert." 

==>

Your last class comes quickly, the bell ringing for seventh period before you even realise you're in sixth period. You blink as the students around you stand and leave the classroom. Is it really 2:20 already? God, another 55 minutes of hel- you mean, school and then you're free. It helps a lot that your next class contains John. 

You sigh as you shove your pencil into the thin plastic surrounding your binder. When Rose finally told you his name, you were suddenly very suspicious. 

For the last four years you've been talking to a certain ectoBiologist on Pesterchum. He told you his name was John. And that he was mute. 

He moved last summer, but wouldn't tell you were to. Actually, he refused to tell you where he lived before, or his last name even. Apparently, his dad would've killed him if he told some stranger online personal shit. You thought that was hilarious. 

You enter English class with a plan. Instead of going to your desk, you walk straight up to John's desk. 

You then stare down at him, red eyes unblinking and hidden by shades, and wonder what special kind of idiot you are exactly. John doesn't notice you at first, but when he does, he just stares up at you with wide eyes. You gulp and open your mouth to speak. Nothing comes out at first, until a lot comes out. 

"So like, your name is John right? Egbert?" He nods. "And you moved here this summer." A nod with special guest, furrowed eyebrows. "Do you use Pesterchum, 'cause I've been talking to this dude with a way over protective dad for like, wow, god, four years and I don't even know his last name, how crazy is that, like, he's some strange enigma except he isn't an enigma, because he's this huge derp dork that doesn't know how to talk properly sometimes, but he's cool, y'know, he always laughs at my jokes, except, okay maybe he doesn't always laugh at my jokes, he doesn't really get them everytime, but he makes an effort, y'know, but he's cool, and basically, I, uh, was wonderin' if you, by any sort of chance, are ectoBiologist on Pesterchum, because that would be mad crazy right, like, yo bro, crazy right!" You haven't blinked in two minutes. It feels like five years. John is still staring at you. 

You fidget for a moment, before John bursts into laughter. It's not laughter, per say, but you can only assume it's laughter. John breaks out into a huge grin and his shoulders begin to shake as he rests his head jerkily on his desk. He makes mangled breathy sounds that almost sound like sobbing. It's endearing. 

You're still mortified. 

When John finally rights himself, wiping at his eyes, he grabs his notebook and hastily scribbles down a sentence or two before shoving it toward you. His handwriting is horrible. 

"yep, im ectobiologist. my best guess for you is turntechgodhead, but i could be wrong." 

You let out a puff of air similar to a laugh and nod jerkily. "I finally know your last name, Egbert." 

John smiles and shakes his head lightly. The bell sounds and John points at the empty seat next to him. "Bro, I would totally sit next to you, but you kinda sit in the front of class. I don't wanna catch nerd from these grimy seats." John shakes his head with a grin and points again. You sigh historonically and drop down into the seat with a loud clunk. 

Your teacher stands to begin her lesson as John flips the page on his notebook. As class goes on, you watch him out of the corner of your eye, protected by your shades. 

The period passes quickly, not that you noticed anything was happening anyway. John was much more interesting to stare at. When the bell sounds, you drift upwards slowly, as it takes John forever to get his shit together. You stand next to his desk and wait as he shoves all but one pen into his bag before he finally stands. He smiles brightly at you as you both move to leave the room. 

"Uh, John, question time," you turn slightly to John as you two exit the building, "I told you I live in Texas, yet when you move to Texas, you don't even tell me." 

John shakes his head and snorts air at you. He uncaps his pen and scribbles onto his notebook. 

"i told you, my dad is protective and didn't want me giving out where i live to random cool kids online." 

"But, bro really, it's fucking Texas, there's like a billion people here, you think I could randomly seek you out, there's already millions of people in Houston, you coulda moved to El Paso for all I'd've known," you're kicking rocks on the front pavement right outside the double doors. John smiles at you and looks down at his notebook for write something for you. 

"well i'm very very sorry, mister bro sir. can i make it up to you with a movie at my house?" He looks up at you with big round eyes as you read it. A small grin lights up your face in ways most people wouldn't notice. 

"Sure, man, we can go to your place today and play video games or something, 'cause your taste is movies is shit." 

"sounds like a plan :B"

**Author's Note:**

> I could make this longer, but if I tried, I would fuck it up, so y'all get this lil 2k word single chapter thingy. Majyyk.   
> (Also, yes Dave's rambles are run-on sentences. In my mind, rambles aren't confined to sentences, just commas.)


End file.
